EDITORIAL: Patronage propriety in Nassau

The admittedly "less than perfect people" who are running Nassau County seem a little confused about how to award patronage, that eternal reward of politics that will always grease the skids of government.

To make patronage credible, however, two rules must be followed: The job should be a necessary one and the person chosen should be qualified for it. County Executive Edward Mangano has hired Carnell Foskey, a former Family Court judge, who lost in November, as the new parks commissioner. The old one, Jose Lopez, is still there; both make the same $130,625 salary. Mangano says Foskey will manage the budget and Lopez, now a deputy, will focus on special events.

Mangano's new public works commissioner, Shila Shah-Gavnoudias, is apparently having difficulty meeting the demands of the job and taking command of it . That inexperience is why former commissioner Ray Ribeiro, a longtime public servant, is still on the job. Both earn $135,850.

Then there is Herberth Flores, the $90,000 deputy director of the Office of Minority Affairs, who got out the crucial Hispanic vote for Mangano. Is Flores, a felon of the ambulance-chasing variety who bribed hospital emergency room workers to get personal information about Hispanics injured in car crashes, really the most qualified liaison to this community?

Using the rules of proper patronage, County Executive Edward Mangano's recent record is, well, less that perfect. hN